Spot The Difference #8

David Estes: Homeland

Emile Heskey: Footballer

Suddenly it becomes clearer why the Director of the Counterterrorism Center at the CIA kept missing that Brody was a terrorist.

Review: Fast & Furious Five

A sign of how far this fifth installment has moved away from the origins of the Fast & Furious franchise is when the time comes in story for an actual street race to take place, they skip over it and don't actual show it on screen.

Fast Five reinvents the series as an action heist film and the end result is the equivalent of Ocean's Eleven on steroids as Vin Diesel gets the band back together to take down a corrupt Brazilian businessman before The Rock's DDS agent can bring them in.

At any point if you stop and analyse what is actually going on in Fast Five, you realise its utter bobbins with enough gaps in logic to drive a muscle car through, but with your brain switched off the sheer ridiculousness of it all is highly enjoyable, with the 2 hour plus running time flying by much quicker than it has any right to - The Rock is star of the show playing a sort of Dog The Bounty Hunter with extra guns and is the nearest thing to a modern day Arnold Schwarzenegger, pumped up to the max with a one-liner after every punch/

Review: Madagascar 3 - Europe's Most Wanted

The original Madagascar film has grown in popularity over the years as it stands up surprisingly well to getting hammered at home by kids on the DVD player - the second in the series, Escape 2 Africa was a bit of a clunker, so it nice to report that this latest installment is a return to form for those who'll have to watch it umpteen times over the next 12 months.

There's not much new here to report, as despite the moving the setting to Europe the jokes largely stay the same - Noah Baumbach getting a screen writing credit is one of the more bizarre sights of the year, but you'd be hard pressed to spot any signs of his previous indie-riffic work at any point during this.

Truth be told, that's probably a problem that's affected the whole Madagascar series as a whole, as despite an impressive range of names involved in the projects, there's always the nagging feeling they could be a little bit better - though with likes of Cars 2 and Brave dropping standards slightly of late, the Pixar sized shadow doesn't loom over Dreamworks' output quite as badly as before.

Review: Moneyball

There's a natural and un-cinematic feel that starts as one of Moneyball's strengths but does also stop it falling slightly short of previous Sorkin effort The Social Network. Hampered by being a real-life story, the stage seems set for a West Wing inspirational speech and triumph against adversity full of stirring music and the like, but true life gets in the way of that slightly, which is a shame.

The film is at its best when Pitt (playing as downbeat as someone who looks like Pitt can get really) and Hill are together on screen - Hill deserves particular credit for a shy and sympathetic turn as stats guy Peter Brand, tuning down the increasingly obnoxious traits of many of his recent performances.

I personally could've done with a bit more Philip Seymour Hoffman, as his role a coach seems quite under-developed and disappears from screen far too early in proceedings.

Moneyball probably wasn't worth the awards buzz that came its way, but is a solid effort that even non-sports fans can enjoy.

Review: The Campaign

Considering his recent track record includes the likes of Due Date and The Hangover 2, Zach Galifianakis can count The Campaign as somewhat of an improvement as he plays a character that doesn't comes across as totally unlikeable for once. In fact Galifianakis' naive Marty Huggins actually manages to garner a fair bit of sympathy when is manipulated into abandoning all his principles to run for office.

Fans of Ferrell might be slightly disappointed though, as much like his George W. Bush impression, he has the voice and look down for a simple Republican Senator Cam Brady - he doesn't actually have that many jokes to back it up.

The lack of laugh out loud jokes or any memorable lines put it below the likes of middle of the road Ferell film like Blades of Glory, Semi-Pro and Talladega Nights - meaning despite being perfectly watchable once, The Campaign is completely forgettable.

Review: Looper

A fast-paced opening half set in the futuristic city is where Looper draws most of its comparisons with the science-fiction staples of Blade Runner, Terminator and Matrix films - and if it had managed to keep up the pace throughout, might have ended up being mentioned as one of the classics in the cannon of the genre down the line.

However as things slow down in the film's second half the pause in pace results in the film's premise starting to feel slightly creaky, leaving the viewer time to find a few holes in logic in the time travel story as well thinking despite a prosthetic nose, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis don't really look that much alike.

Spending most of the second part stuck on a farm with a creepy kid means Looper ends up being more reminiscent of a lot of 70s horror - and having most of the good stuff front-loaded means despite all the positives, the film ends up feeling a slight disappointment.